Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-10-17
Robbers Outmatched.


was five O'Clock in the afternoon of
an August day. We were on our
! way to Stockton, and of the passen-
gers one was lieutenant in the reg
ular army, another tourist in search
of health, third ranchman, and
| the other two were prospectOrs
and miners. None of us had met
each other previous to the start.
Those were perilous times and the
| first half hour was spent in sizing
each other up. [ don't know to what
! conclusions the others came, but |
looked over the four men and said to
myself
"The lieutenant ought to fight in
case we are attacked, but he seems
too nervous to be gamey. The tour
ist is i'll and has no sand, but the
ranchman and prospector can be de-
pended on.
At that time the coach which was
not stopped twice out of five trips
was considered very lucky. In some
few instances the robbers were driv-
| en- off, but in most cases the passen-
gers submitted to being "held up
and were glad to get off with nothing
worse. / had with me over $4,000 in
bank bills and gold, and / was deter
mined not to part with that money
without fight. The ranchman had
$4,000 and the miner about $4,000, as
was afterward learned, and both had
determined to fight. We had just
forded the Merced River, and had
come to a lonely stretch of road, when
the ranchman pulled his revolver and
examined the caps. 1t was not yet
restored to the holster when we heard
a shout, the report Of a pistol, and
the stage came to a full stop. l
reached for my pistol, as did the min
er, knowing that robbers were at
hand, but before mine was out the
lieutenant flung his arms around me
and cried out:
"For Gods sake make no move
or we shall all be murdered Let
! them take all we have ~.
At the same time the tourist flung
himself upon the miner, and neither
of us had a weapon out when a rob-
Der showed himself at either door.
The ranchman was ready, however,
and he killed the man on his side. He
would have also killed the other, but
his revolver failed on the second shot,
and the robber pushed his revolver in
and fired with the muzzle pressed
against the poor fellows heart. A
third rObber then came up, and we
were covered from either door and
called upon to surrender. The jig
was up, and we climbed out, deliver
ing our pistols butt foremost as we
left the stage. There were four of
us and only two robbers, but when a
man has the drop on you and means
business it's no use to kick. The lieu
tenant shelled out a watch and $40,
the tourist a watch and S400, and
| they got from the other two of US the
sums | have previously named. |
had my bank bills in my boot-legs,
but as we were forced to strip to our
shirts, they found every dollar.
When they were ready to 60 they
cut the harness so that the stage
would be detained couple of hours,
broke up or carried off every frearm
| and drank to our health from a flask
| the tourist had with him. They made
off for the foot-hill, to the East. hav-
ing so little care for us that neither
of them once looked back. | was
mad and no mistake, and the miner
gave utterance to his feelings in ours
es which almost crushed the stones
around us. We had been robbed of
every dollar, and with the money our
every prospect. The tourist could
get more at Stockton, and the lieu
tenant was out only few dollars any
way. / was not yet dressed when he
began to put on airs over US, claim
ing that if we had not been so hasty
he would have managed the affair to
the defeat of the robbers. This add
ed to my anger, and sailed in and
pounded him until he yelled for
mercy.
It was just sunset when the stage
was ready to 60 on, but there were
two of us who did not propose to go |
that way. We were unarmed, but |
determined, and while the stage lum-
bered off down the rough road we
found a club apiece and set out on
the trail of the robbers. Luckily for
us the miner had been long in the |
country and seen good deal of the |
hunters life. We, therefore, had no
difficulty in following the trail until
darkness came on. The fellows made /
directly for the foothills, and we had
no doubt that they had some sort of /
cave or stronghold out there. We
were then between the foothills and |
the true mountain in a narrow valley, I
and a full moon had come up. With I
out this light we could not have made |
our way, as the ground was much /
broken and boulders lay thlckly scat
/ tered about.
We went ahead very cautiously up
this valley for about a mile, and of a
sudden rift opened to the left, and
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